Thread Necromancy!!
Donna Lewis was all over the radio world-wide in 1995 with "I Love You Always Forever" (the song which kept it from #1 for nine weeks was the Bayside Boys remix of "Macarena", which is both awful and hilarious). I fell in love with the song, bought the album, and it's been in my top 10 for decades. Even now, at forty, popping it in makes me feel like a teenager. I have very specific memories associated with this disc, but my absolute favorite song off it is "Agenais", a dreamy tune about the narrator's journey to a fantastical, magical place.
Every song on this CD is beautiful and inspires different feelings in me. I cannot count the number of memories I have that involve this CD: riding in the car in the night as I sat in the back seat listening to it on my Discman, using specific songs to inspire certain scenes in the stories I was writing at the time, crying in my room at my mom's house with the door closed as I realized I was about to disconnect myself from that life and move out on my own for good, playing it as the unofficial soundtrack to countless nights I spent MUDding (back when that meant playing a text-based online RPG, not slogging through a bunch of slop and climbing over obstacles just to prove how miserable you can make running)...
So this is my album of choice this evening, but since it would be crass to link the whole thing, I'm linking to my favorite song. Maybe you've heard it before, maybe you haven't, maybe you'll love it, maybe you won't, but that CD's been the world to me more times than I can count in my life.
*huggles*
Areala

I don't think it's population density so much as it is cultural response. For years it seemed like the US had no issues with domestic abuse because culturally such things weren't talked about. Then, when we did start discussing it, there was a giant backlash: "Sure, I spank my kids when they get out of line, but my dad whipped the hell out of me until I was eighteen and left home, and I turned out OK, so what's the problem?" or "I mean, yeah, I've smacked my wife a couple of times when she got hysterical, but I'm not some abusive asshole like some of the guys I know!" or "I might call my husband a nasty name every so often or make fun of him in front of my friends, but he's a man...isn't he supposed to take it like one?"
Until we socially "have the talk" and get it all out in the open, issues rarely change one way or the other. There's a fine line between humor and insult, but it may be impossible to determine what crosses the line if the silent minority cannot speak up about it. Japan, much like the US, has areas where they have yet to socially "have the conversation" so they can figure out how to make things better. They're only just now discussing their culture of overwork, and realizing that forcing employees to work hundreds of hours of overtime every month is detrimental to health and morale. What changes will be interesting to see, but the shake-up may be starting here.
*huggles*
Areala

Look at it this way though: we sacrifice one physical copy to preserve it for the days when one physical copy might well cost a small fortune on eBay. It's a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.
*huggles*
Areala